1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automobile headlamp in which a light source unit accommodated in the lamp body or a lamp unit coupled to the automobile body is tiltably supported vertically and horizontally by an aiming mechanism, and more particularly to an automobile head-lam in which a light source tilting aiming screw turning section is provided outside the lamp body.
2. Related Art
A conventional headlamp of this type is as shown in FIGS. 28 and 29. In the lamp, a reflector 202 to which a light source, namely, light bulb 206 is coupled, is supported by three points, namely, two aiming screws 203 and 204 which extend in a front-to-rear direction through a lamp body 201, and one ball joint 205. FIG. 28 is a front view of the reflector, which shows the aiming screws 203 and 204 extending in a direction perpendicular to the drawing.
The aiming screws 203 and 204 are rotatably supported by the lamp body 201 at the penetrating points. The supporting points of the reflector 202 are provided by nut members 207 and 208 which couple to the reflector 202 and engage with the aiming screws 203 and 204, respectively. The nut members 207 and 208, and the ball joint 105 serving as a swing fulcrum are arranged at right angles as viewed from the front of the lamp.
As the aiming screws 203 and 204 are operated to rotate, the nut members 207 and 108 move back and forth along the screws 203 and 204, while the reflector 202 is inclined about the horizontal axis Lx and the vertical axis Ly, so that the angle of irradiation of the lamp is adjusted vertically and horizontally. The aiming screws 203 and 204 have turning sections 203a at the rear ends which engage with a turning tool such as a screw driver D or a hexagon wrench to turn the screws 203 and 204.
In the above-described conventional headlamp, the turning sections of the aiming screws 203 and 204 expose on the rear side of the lamp body 201. This feature is advantageous as a headlamp used for the European or Japanese standard which requires that a headlamp can incline both vertically and horizontally. However, since the vertically inclining turning section and the horizontally inclining turning section expose outside, the conventional headlamp is disadvantageous as a headlamp for the United States standard which requires that a headlamp can incline only vertically, but it should not incline horizontally.
Hence, in order to adapt the conventional headlamp to the United States standard, it must be modified as follows: The reflector is supported by a ball joint instead of the aiming screw 203. As is apparent from the above description, two different types of headlamps, that is, headlamps to be used for the U.S. standard and headlamps to be used for the European or Japanese standard must be manufactured, although they form one and the same light distribution. This is considerably troublesome, and calls for high in manufacturing cost.